Unexpected Baby Chinchillas

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Jocequeen

New member
Joined
Nov 29, 2018
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1
I thought I had two boy chinchillas, the father and son. Turns out its father and daughter. The daughter(Cheerio) just gave birth to two baby chinchillas this morning. This is Cheerios first litter of babies since she was born this past January. Im not sure if she is nursing the babies or how I should set up the cage?? Cheerio is really active, running on the wheel, jumping on top of things, so I took the wheel out and she seems really aggressive towards me and was trying to get out of the cage when I was taking her wheel out. Ive been doing a lot of research and the babies are fine, eyes open, squeaking, cuddle with eachother, and walk around but mom just keeps moving away from them. On the bottom of the cage I put some hay because before I had those tiny water absorbing woodchips and I also bought that cotton bedding stuff from Petco and put it in a little box for the babies. Should I not touch the babies? I read that mother chins wont reject their babies if a human touches it but im not sure. Can I leave the dust bath in the cage?? should I not have much in the cage? I also have a little hut for the chinchillas to go inside of in their cage. Also is it okay that they are technically inbred babies? Do you think mom is too young to have had babies?? Mom was born Jan 1 2018 so shes not even a year yet. How do I properly care for the babies and mom?? Help!
 
You can touch the babies. Chinchillas will not reject them if you touch them. I touch mine while they are still wet if I need to.

Take the dust bath out. First, it shouldn't be in there all the time anyway, just 2 or 3 times a week. Second, mom is open from having delivered kits and it "might" cause her to have an infection. I've not had it happen, but better to be safe than sorry.

Remove dad immediately and keep them separate. Hopefully there was no breedback. Maybe you'll get lucky and have a girl and a boy kit so you can keep them in same sex pairs!

If mom is moving away from the kits, make it so she can't. No shelves, no houses, no hammocks - nothing that she can get up on to get away. Also be sure your wire spacing is safe. Kits can squeeze out of the smallest of spots. Most breeders use 1/2" x 1" wire because of that. With her being aggressive towards you, my guess would be that she's a nervous first time mom so giving her some space would be a good idea, just until she settles in. It would be good though, if at all possible, if you could weigh the kits on a gram scale for a baseline and then in a day or two weigh them again. That way you'll know for sure if they are gaining. It's normal to have a gram or 2 drop at first, but then they should start steadily gaining.

Age wise she should be okay. Some breeders put their animals in a lot younger than I ever would and they do fine. Don't worry too much about them being "inbred." As long as you're not going to continue to breed them, it isn't an issue. Experienced breeders will on occasion line breed their animals (what you think of as inbred) but they are very selective and knowledgeable about their blood lines and what traits they are hoping to continue. Just as you can breed in good traits, you can magnify bad traits by too closely breeding animals.

Deep breath. Chins are pretty self-sufficient with taking care of kits. There is a thread under breeding and babies that gives step by step info for caring for kits if something should happen (milk not coming in, mom rejecting, death of mom, etc.). Hopefully though, everything will go along smoothly for you and you won't need to worry about it. :)
 
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